Risque report +

[pianoman]

Hi All,
I'm back from the woodworking show and I was p r e t t y bad.  I bought 
plunge base for my router, a new formica covered router table, and a
16"Incra Jig fixture for the table, and for my wife, a giant dust pan and
bench brush.   Don't laugh, she wanted that at the last woodwork show we
went to and I weaseled out of it then.  Now to wait for the credit card
bill to come.
	On a more serious note, this is something I have not seen mentioned on
this list before.  If I am wrong in bringing it up I will not post anymore
about it.
	I have been to 4 to 5 woodworking shows over a couple of states in the
last 3 years.  Todays show I seen several thousand people attending and
about the same in the other shows.  Guess what I didn't see one of?
I have not seen one single black person at ANY of these shows.  This is
puzzling to me as woodworking, just as piano tuning, lends itself well to a
one person business and your success finally depends on how good you are
over the years.  I know there are many talented black people in the arts,
yet I have not seen one attending any of these shows.  Are there no black
woodworkers?
	In this area there have only been a handfull of black piano service
people.  One, whose name was Shaw is probably the most well known because
of his little stickers he would place on the pinblocks of pianos that he
tuned.  Strange, all the stickers had the Union Made emblem.  Shaw,  all he
used were initials and I forget what they were was also the piano player
for Singleton Palmers Ragtime Jazz band, a popular Dixieland group in this
area.  I would guess that Shaw has departed us now.
Since then I worked with John Lewis, a black fellow tuner whose nickname is
Punch, when I worked for the stores, who is now working for one of our
larger piano stores.  I don't know how he got that nickname but he
certainly wasn't punchy.  He was, an is, a real nice guy and qualified tech
though never a guild member.
The only other black tuner that I am aware of in this area is a fellow
named Terry Martin who I believe used to work for a colleague member of
this list.  I got a call from Terry several months ago inquiring on how
much it would cost to build him a music rack.  Thats it folks.  I know our
national president, Marshall, is black and has risen to the top of the
guild but in this area I just don't see it.  You could apply what I have
just said about Asians in this area and it would be true except I know of
none.  All this I know is not because exclusion, I think most of us go out
of our way to help newcomers, at least I see this on our list.  Is this
same phenomen true other places?
James Grebe
R.P.T. of the P.T.G. from St. Louis
pianoman@inlink.com
"Success is not a goal, rather it is a way of life".